‘Beer Bus’ takes patrons for a ride from Greenville to Kinston

Sarah Raynor, driver of Mother Earth Brewing’s Brew Bus, prepares for a full load of passengers on the Greenville to Kinston route on Saturday. Passengers can enjoy some beer and tour the brewery and downtown.

“Lots of people would like to see Kinston and what we’ve got going on,” Cellarman Joe Kavanagh said, “but it’s just a little bit too far to see what’s going on, have a beer and drive back.”

Passengers toured Mother Earth Brewing and enjoyed some of the restaurants and entertainment downtown Kinston has to offer.

“We’ve been getting nothing but outrageous feedback about this,” Kavanagh said, “so I think it’s going to be a big hit.”

Each Saturday, Greenville patrons will be picked up at noon and 6 p.m. from Peasant’s Pub or 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. from Hilton Greenville. Approximately one hour later, the passengers arrive in Kinston and will have options to go on to the Mother Earth Brewery tour or go visit downtown.

“Lots of people would like to see Kinston and what we’ve got going on,” Cellarman Joe Kavanagh said, “but it’s just a little bit too far to see what’s going on, have a beer and drive back.”

Passengers toured Mother Earth Brewing and enjoyed some of the restaurants and entertainment downtown Kinston has to offer.

“We’ve been getting nothing but outrageous feedback about this,” Kavanagh said, “so I think it’s going to be a big hit.”

Each Saturday, Greenville patrons will be picked up at noon and 6 p.m. from Peasant’s Pub or 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. from Hilton Greenville. Approximately one hour later, the passengers arrive in Kinston and will have options to go on to the Mother Earth Brewery tour or go visit downtown.

A bus back to Greenville will load from Kinston at 5 p.m. and midnight.

“It’s the fall, all the schools are back in and we just felt like it was the right time for us,” Mother Earth co-owner Stephen Hill said. “We’ve been planning this since the beginning of the summer. We bought the bus last April, had it wrapped and spent the summer getting it ready to run. We even had someone get their license to drive it.

“People had been asking for it for a while, and now we’ll be able to provide the services.”

There have been custom changes to the former school bus, which can carry 40 passengers. For one, the bus went green — it uses bio-diesel fuel.

“The seats face each other, so they won’t all be straight ahead,” Hill said. “It will be a friendly atmosphere. We will have games for people on the bus and things for them to do while they’re riding.”

Driver Sarah Raynor took the bus for a test run Saturday at mid-day, and said she is excited about the new transportation.

“If it boosts up Kinston,” she said, “and helps out with the downtown … it’s great.”

Starting next month, the Beer Bus will run on Friday nights, as well. Hill is also looking to expand to other areas soon.

“We are looking at maybe New Bern and Goldsboro,” Hill said. “We’re starting in Greenville to see what the demand is, and we’ve asked people in other areas if they need a bus. If they can fill it up and if we need more buses, we will get them.”

Although there isn’t an online registration for the beer bus, Hill said people can still make reservations to ride.

“Right now, people can send emails to info@motherearthbrewing.com,” Hill said. “Depending on popularity, we’ll get an online reservation system. For now, we’re flying by the seat of our pants.”

Margaret Fisher contributed to this report. Junious Smith III can be reached at 252-559-1077 and Junious.Smith@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JuniousSmithIII.